Main Line Steam in the UK

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	Main Line Steam Each image links to a larger copy which opens in a new window/tab
	This page shows some of the UK main line steam images I have taken.

There were three main line steam locos in service in the London area on the 28th November 2009. First was the departure of 60019 Bittern from Victoria at 08:54 for Worcester. I photographed her at Wandsworth Town at 09:12. At 12:51 I caught 34067 Tangmere passing Vauxhall station for a 13:05 scheduled arrival at Waterloo. Due the platform used and the position of the sun these were the least successful images of the day. Finally, 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley was scheduled to arrive at Kings Cross at 14:07, passing Finsbury park at 13:53. The direct Victoria Line link from Vauxhall to Finsbury Park got me their by 13:25, allowing me to photograph 60007 at 13:40, nearly 15 minutes early.

6115 was built in 1927 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow. It was named Scots Guardsman in 1928 after the Scots Guards. After receiving smoke deflectors, it starred in the 1936 film Night Mail. 6115 was rebuilt in 1947 with a new tapered type 2A boiler, and was painted LMS 1946 black livery. It was the first of the rebuilt engines to receive smoke deflectors and the only one to run with them as an LMS engine. It was renumbered 46115 by British Railways after nationalisation in 1948 and was withdrawn in 1965.

Scots Guardsman is one of two preserved Royal Scots, the other being LMS Royal Scot Class 6100 Royal Scot.46115 was later purchased by West Coast Railway Company and was restored to main-line running standard. Her first test run from Carnforth to Hellifield was completed on June 20, 2008. The loco was then moved back into the depot at Steamtown for a full repaint. The loco appeared for the first time in BR Brunswick Green at the Steamtown Open Weekend on 26/27 July. The loco then hauled its first railtour on Saturday 16 August from Hellifield to Carlisle and return.

Britannia was built at Crewe, completed on 2 January 1951. She was the first British Railways standard locomotive to be built and the first of 55 locomotives of the Britannia Class. The locomotive was named at a ceremony at Marylebone Station by the then Minister for Transport Alfred Barnes on 30 January 1951. The BR Locomotive Naming Committee were determined not to use names already in use on other locomotives. They tried to observe this by not selecting the name Britannia for use on 70000 because it was already in use on one of the ex-LMS Jubilee Class locomotives, but Robert Riddles overruled them and the Jubilee had to be renamed. Britannia was initially based at Stratford (30A) in order to work East Anglian expresses to Norwich and Great Yarmouth. Subsequently, the loco was based at Norwich Thorpe (w/e 31 January 1959) and March (June 1961) before spending the remainder of her career on the London Midland Region: Willesden (1A) (w/e 30 March 1963), Crewe North (5A) (w/e 25 May 1963), Crewe South (5B) (w/e 19 May 1965) and finally Newton Heath (9D) (w/e 5 March 1966) from where she was withdrawn w/e 28 May 1966, For many years, Britannia had her cab roof painted white. This was to commemorate her pulling the funeral train of King Edward II from Norfolk to London following his death in February 1952 at Sandringham House, Norfolk. Britannia was withdrawn in May 1966, after 15 years of service. In the summer of 2012 she ran briefly in unlined black as shown below.

6024 King Edward I was built at GWR's Swindon Works in June 1930, for most of its working life it was allocated to Plymouth Laira MPD. Transferred to Old Oak Common MPD, London, in March 1959, and finally to Cardiff Canton TMD in 1962.

Sent to Swindon for breaking up, it had one final unusual task – coupled to its twin, 6023 King Edward II, it was towed over a bridge for weight testing purposes. Resultantly, with them now being closer to South Wales than Swindon, both locomotives survived and ended up being sold to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales, where they languished in the company of 300 other locomotives.

Following the expiry of its boiler certificate, 6024 will be withdrawn at the end of March 2012 for overhaul at the West Somerset Railway's workshops at Williton, Somerset, from April 2012

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